Productivity and Financial Performance

This chapter explores the relationship between productivity and financial performance, primarily at the level of an individual business. It begins by decomposing profit change into price and quantity drivers, under alternative accounting treatments of operating surplus. The chapter considers a range of related issues, including the drivers of productivity change, the distribution of the value productivity that change creates, problems associated with missing or distorted prices, complications caused by fluctuating exchange rates, and the use of price change to measure productivity change. In addition to profit, it considers alternative measures of financial performance, such as return on assets and unit cost. The chapter concludes by pointing to some topics deserving of further research.